Less than a year.

Aspartame will leave your body within a matter of days, but it takes time to repair the damage it does to your body. Remember that sometimes illness takes years to build within your body and damage the body, but if it takes half that much time to restore good health - well, that's quick!

I recommend the following:
1: test your pH and see if it is below 6.0; if too acidic (which I surmise it will be), adjust your eating plan to return this level to 6.5
2: do the Hulda Clark parasite program, and follow it to the tee; this will remove the microbes intertwined within the colon wall
3: take a probiotic on an empty stomach twice daily; the purest one you can find (check out my lab's Alphadolphilus; it has had some great results)
3: now we can talk detox

Liz, it is not a bad idea to have a hair analysis done to see what specific nutrients the microbes have leached from your body. But for now, supplement with a high-end multi-vitamin and a liquid trace mineral complex. Also a B-Complex (50-100 mg) will also restore gut nutrients.

Do this, and get back with me. There are lots of other things you can do, so if you get on the web and start researching this, know that restoring your health doesn't stop here, but this is what I feel is the most important process initially, and one that will hit the bulls eye ASAP!

BTW, the steroid will only suppress the root cause - it will do nothing but build false hope for a temporary fix, and it will pack down the little buggers creating this trauma, only making things worse.